L.A. Noire Main Story Takes ’25-30 Hours’ to Complete

March 14, 2011Written by Anthony Severino

Short single player campaigns are just one trend that has recently been plaguing the video game industry. Many developers forego the main story in order to spend more time building out online multiplayer modes and extend the life of the game. But not Rockstar and Team Bondi’s L.A. Noire — they’re focusing on providing a compelling story.

In typical Rockstar fashion, L.A. Noire features a massive open world. However, instead of Red Dead Redemption-style exploration, L.A. Noire will focus more on the narrative and main storyline.

During a closed-door PAX East demonstration for members of the press, Rockstar showed off the majority of one homicide case entitled, The Red Lipstick Murder. Along with playing through almost the entirety of one of the game’s 23 main “assigned cases”, a rep for Rockstar revealed that it will take roughly 25-30 hours to complete the main story. On top of the main story, there are “unassigned cases” that help build the backstory of secondary characters. These side stories will freeze the main story until they are completed. Additionally, the game will support DLC cases, some of which have already been announced as pre-order exclusives to retailers — all of which will eventually be made available to everyone via the PlayStation Store.